Ya Bezzer!

According to the radio Gannon isn't speaking to the press again and isn't allowing players to speak either.

Radio guy just said 'Motherwell changed things at half time but it never really worked out'. Gannon needs to stop tampering with things. Sure if its not working with half an hour or 20 minutes to go change it but these HT changes are having a negative effect. Are you telling me player morale isn't effected when you are pulling players off in the first half and at half time two at a time, match after match?

Mikael Antoine-Curier's loan deal at Accies ends on January 1st and I'm sure Dundee would be easy to deal with since there was been a big fall out between the player and the club. Accies are trying to extend the deal, might I suggest we nip in and steal him. Good goals to game ratio, would be a good third striker and maybe more.

Hibs have won 5, drawn 1 and lost 1 (to Celtic) at home and have only conceded one goal in the last five of those so they seem to be pretty strong at home. Hopefully we go out with revenge on our mind and pay them back but really depends on what Motherwell team shows up on the day.

Exactly. He's alienating the media, referees, other managers and if what you hear is true some of our own players. Why exactly? As for 'congratulating' Gannon for communicating through the club instead of the press - what short sightedness. That's fine now when things are going reasonably well but if things later go less well who do you think is going to ask the hard questions? No disrespect to the people who are employed by the club, they do a good job, but they are restricted in what they can ask and write because at the end of the day the piper calls the tune. Part of a managers job is to speak to the press - if he doesn't then he's not doing his job properly. Some of the stuff he's been coming away with might be crowd pleasing to the unthinking but actually its nonsense and he's starting to come across as some one who needs to learn a little humility. He's also been completely hypocritical. He started off really well with his dealings with the press but more and more it looks like doesn't have the experience or simply can't handle the increased press cover he gets here. Elsewhere he was local news and not much else. In Scotland he's national news with a dozen newspapers or more. Frankly someone needs to tell him to shut up. His refusal to actual learn from the situation HE got himself into suggests a stubborn and arrogant personality - already suggested by needless tactical mistakes against in particular St.Mirren and Aberdeen. He needs to take a few steps back, learn some lessons and concentrate on actually winning some games.

Remember when football managers say this they are also saying that fans don't have the right to question them. It's a complete bullshit argument. Fans will applaud any pop at the media but its time we started actually looking at what Gannon is saying - and a lot of it is slightly worrying.

As long as we are not top of the league we should be looking at things and deciding what could be done to improve the team and what faults we have. It's not necessarily negativity, it can be the opposite, the will to succeed. It's obvious the question 'have we exceeded expectations this season?' is a different one from 'should we have beaten Aberdeen last week?' or 'why did we keep throwing away 3 points against 10 men?' and they all have different answer so folks shouldn't be surprised that they do. It's possible to be critical of aspects of our season and approve or be satisfied with the general picture.

What part of it do you disagree with? That the British army hasn't killed innocent civilians? That the wars weren't based on lies and propaganda? That the level of security in the United Kingdom is denuded rather than enhanced by our foreign policy? That people shouldn't have the freedom to either form their own opinions or decide on their own actions? I applauded the soldiers yesterday but I was always and will always be against the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is more about oil pipelines and propping up Pakistan than British security. What worries me most about this whole thing isn't so much giving away free season tickets, more that people are losing sight of the difference between respecting the army and venerating the army. We are more and more being pushed towards the latter and anyone who know anything about history knows that is the wrong way for a society to go - in fact most British war dead, including many members of my own family, died in the battle to stop those sort of societies. I feel genuinely sorry for the military who have been put in this position by shameful people; politicians, media moguls and others, who exploit them and use them as a political football to achieve their own agendas. Once freedom of speech goes we are in a very sorry position, so while I applauded yesterday and respect the tough conditions many soldiers find themselves in, its actually completely necessary to debate and oppose the veneration of the army, if we don't then we slip further down the slope towards authoritarian government. Preserving free speech and allowing rival opinions, even extreme ones, does more to maintain the survival of our freedom than any army - without it the military quickly become oppressors rather than protectors.

Hateley for me.

We have a good recent record against Dundee United and Levein's teams are notoriously up and down. Dundee United are better than us on paper and have a strong squad but if we play to our potential we can win this game. We'll need our midfield to up their game though on recent performances and hopefully we approach the game in a positive frame of mind. Have a funny feeling Sutton might drop out for this one, I hope that's not the case.

I've started buying the programme again after a long time of not doing so because I didn't think it was worth the money but the current programme is very good indeed. I'm sure I read that a club somewhere or other had increased the gate price by a small amount (a £1 I think) and given every supporter a programme as they came in through the turnstiles. With the larger volumes of programmes printed and the extra money brought in apparently this was more worthwhile than selling programmes on an individual basis. Sounds like a good idea to me but people who aren't remotely interested in the programme might not agree.

Ruddy is an improvement on Smith but 'best in 15 years' is a bit much. Gordon Marshall had an excellent first season and a half with us. Then there is Scott Howie and Andy Goram who made some magnificent saves for us.

Jennings was running about like a headless chicken on Saturday. It was Maros Klimpl all over again. As for Forbes, he's 18 and his professional career amounts to half a season in the Scottish Third division, give the guy a break. Even when he's not on top form he's still scored game winning goals (Hearts, Inverness) and it's obvious when he gets it wrong its because he tries things other players wouldn't even attempt. That should be encouraged rather than booed out of him because the odd pass goes astray. Would you rather have a player that does neat and tidy but doesn't actually do anything positive or creative or someone who will fail occasionally but who has match winning ability? As for Coke a spell on the sidelines might do him good. I've said before an on form Lasley is every bit as good as anything Coke has shown so far and if Lasley fails to take his chance, then there is competition for that area of the park.

The press weren't doing anything that we fans didn't do on these very forums by speculating who Gannon was talking about when he made his veiled comments. For fans to criticize the press for doing so smacks of hypocrisy when there is a long thread on these boards on the very same topic. When Gannon said "I think you just need to look at the team sheet" that's exactly what everyone did and the press wouldn't have been doing their job properly if they hadn't run with that angle. Gannon made a comment that backfired, he should have taken it on the chin and moved on. Instead by inflaming the situation he's following a mistake with a mistake. As for the programme notes, well first of all the stuff about Burley is absolute rot and the comments he signs off with make him sound rather pompous and arrogant.

Apparently Stephen Maguire has been doing really well at East Stirlingshire, got about 5 goals so far this season. I always thought he looked a decent player in the reserves.

Didn't he put in a brilliant cross for our goal against Hearts? Short memories around here.

Yeah, its the current trend among managers not to put players on the posts. They want all the players picking up a man rather than areas.

Today in the second half we were playing with 0 up front!

He was poor today but he was coming back from a spell injured and the conditions were 'difficult'. Anyway I think Gannon has given him instructions to come inside and Saunders to go right when we are under attack because it happen to many times today to be an accident.

Message to Gannon. When we are 1-0 up and playing well and everyone in the team is doing pretty well - JUST FUCKING LEAVE IT! What was that substitution all about? Forbes wasn't a stand out but he was doing OK and we were on top in the match and looking the better of the two. Forbes didn't look injured so it must have been tactical. Well we never looked like winning the game from the 46th minute on, in fact the Aberdeen goal had been coming and they can think themselves unlucky not to have won. On the up side it was good entertainment. Lights on, greasy surface, high pace....who needs summer football - this is the real thing. RUDDY -8- Keep the Dons out three or four times with great saves. MOUTAOUAKIL -5- One to forget. Mulgrew murdered him and his crosses rarely went past the first man. SAUNDERS -6- Decent display but showed his inexperience at times. REYNOLDS -7- Good run in the second half HAMMELL -6- Didn't get forward much today MURPHY -7- Brilliant first half but the team faded in the 2nd half and he had less opportunities to shine. COKE -6- Passable display HATELEY -6- Did OK in his usual role FORBES -6- Taken off at 45 minutes, why? JUTKIEWICZ -7- Took his goal well even if the keeper shouldn't lose one from that angle SUTTON -7- Worked really hard and linked up with Jutkiewicz well, needs to find his shooting boots though. O'BRIEN -2- Never really got into the match JENNINGS -3- Aggressive McHUGH -1- Inexperienced

Fraser, Humphreys, Craigan and O'Brien out Ruddy, Moutaouakil, Murphy and someone else in! Need to go get out now!

Aberdeen aren't that bad. If they won today, and who wouldn't be surprised at that considering our recent record at Fir Park against them, they would be 1 point behind us and would have won the same number of matches. Yet again the McGhee Factor makes people believe what they want to and not the actual facts. The Alex Miller Aberdeen, the Paul Hegarty Aberdeen, the Ebbe Skovdahl Aberdeen were all much worse than the current one. Anyway here is our recent record at Fir Park against Aberdeen Draw 1-1 Lost 0-1 Won 3-0 Won 2-1 Lost 0-2 Lost 0-2

I'm afraid I think he has a point. On paper our record is good but I've not seen much entertaining football at Fir Park this season and that's the sad truth. In fact most of the performances I've seen this season have been plain dull. Die hards might be happy with points but we aren't going to attract new supporters because frankly its a bore. We had a good half against Kilmarnock and we did OK, but no more, against Hearts but Falkirk, Hibs, Rangers? You could probably count serious attempts on goal from those matches on one hand. Most teams in the league are playing what is essentially 4-5-1 and its not good for supporters to watch but its not really a Motherwell problem, more a football problem in general. Basically unless clubs change their tactical set ups then they are going to drive football out of business.

Aberdeen are completely shagged financially. They have big debts and probably couldn't afford to bring in O'Brien unless one of their big earners moves on in January. I have no doubts O'Brien will move on at the end of his contract though.

Non League teams still in the draw. Threave Rovers Inverurie Loco Works Deveronvale Auchinleck Talbot Irvine Meadow Edinburgh City Keith Wick Academy Cove Rangers Spartans There is two all non league ties so at least two of them well go through - Threave/Inverurie and Keith/Edinburgh City. Auchinleck have the hardest task away to Stirling Albion and Cove Rangers are away to Stenhousemuir but most of the rest of them look like they have a decent chance with home ties.